Category Archives: Reflections

Book Reviews: The Fires of Waterland

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Raymond Alexander Kukkee
© 2013 by Raymond Alexander Kukkee

**UPDATED NOVEMBER 2014 -- Updates AND Milestones!

**UPDATE  MARCH 17/13      Nadine Sellers, blogger at Last Known Nest, writes     A 5-Star review for The Fires of Waterland

A book Review: The Fires of Waterland by Raymond Alexander Kukkee.

                                                                       
"Raymond Alexander Kukkee has broken into print, a mark of his talent and passion for fiction. In his novel, The Fires of Waterland, he has brought an entire range of universal concerns into full view. Honesty is served in doses of violent conditions in the boiling secrecy of buried poverty.
 
Set in mid-century Canada, the suspenseful tale of family strife and cascading abuses reads as a serial film of great scope. Somewhere between memorable epics of the great depression and Dickensian classics, the story begins as charming details of the lush countryside “small plants domesticate undisciplined cracks in the delicate lacework of broken curbstones—mosses and meticulous ivies advance”, innocuous introductions of slow memories pouring from an old man's recollections of a seemingly simpler era.
Then, the reader begins to suspect there is...."  ( read more here  )
                                            **
** UPDATE MARCH 16/13     A new 5-Star Review for The Fires of Waterland has been received.  Get the new, 2nd Edition at Rocking Horse Publishing, online at Amazon, or at fine bookstores everywhere.
**5 Stars: "The Fires of Waterland is a book that kept my eyes glued to the pages and my heart in my throat--in a good way"  ...C.B.
 

Reviews make a Difference

It never ceases to amaze  how a few words can entice, lure, enable and establish the first impression a reader gets when considering a book.  Simple words.   " A good read".  "Fantastic"  "Brilliantly written".   "Reads like..."  "Reminiscent of".  "We recommend".   Are reviews valuable? If a reader is looking for guidance in selection, style,  or confirmation of  chosen, favourite  genre, a review can certainly help.  Do great reviews guarantee a good read?  Common sense suggests that  reviews are opinion.    Hopefully, insightful, informed, and thoughtful opinion.  A good review offers a birds-eye view of the novel for the reader without ever seeing the book.   How valuable reviews ultimately become are determined by the readership. A dozen great reviews do not guarantee every book will be 'liked' by every reader.  On the other hand, a few good reviews suggest a book is worth investigation.  If the reader cannot find a review in sight, the book is a complete unknown. Are reviews valuable?   It depends if they're good, or if they are fantastic. Ultimately it depends if  you, the reader,  place faith in experienced reviewers and their insight.   Book reviews do make a difference.  Thoughtful prospective readers will ultimately  make up their own minds, --that is a given.  No scribbler in the writing world can expect more.  The Fires of Waterland has received great reviews. 5-Stars.  I'm the author. I believe you'll agree with the reviewers.   Here's how to find out.  Read reviews for The Fires of Waterland--available in print and eBook formats at Rocking Horse Publishing, at Amazon online, or at fine bookstores everywhere.   Get your copy of  new, 2nd edition of  The Fires of Waterland  now.   If you haven't read the reviews, why not?  Reviews  can and  do make a difference.  

MILESTONE !

  This was the  1st edition of The Fires of Waterland.  The 1st edition is  NO longer available except by special request directly  from the author by email at:  rkmywest@gmail.com pictures first copy 030 Things just keep getting hotter and hotter, don't they? THIS is the 2nd Edition, Rocking Horse Publishing (2014)  available both online at my new publisher,  Rocking Horse Publishing and at Amazon in print, and eBook formats. [caption id="attachment_2812" align="aligncenter" width="335"]Cover for The Fires of Waterland The Fires of Waterland by Raymond Alexander Kukkee    (2nd Edition, Rocking Horse Publishing)[/caption]    Get it. Read it.  Heat up the world. You will not forget The Fires of Waterland.   : ##  Is that Incoming I hear?    
Posted in Book Reviews, Flash Fiction, Reflections, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Books: The Fires of Waterland

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Raymond Alexander Kukkee
© by Raymond Alexander Kukkee

 Only  limited numbers of signed copies of the first edition of The Fires of Waterland are available from the author.

WATCH FOR A 2nd edition COMING SOON

[caption id="attachment_891" align="aligncenter" width="450"]The Fires of Waterland .                                             * The Fires of Waterland[/caption]   See?  It does work!  Persistence pays. Dedication works. Time stops.... Are you  a writer of books?  If you are, you are all too aware it  can take seemingly  endless, difficult months, even years to write a novel. How long, you say?  Ten years?   Maybe not that long, but the fact is,  some books take even longer.   Until the story is told, time warps, reverses,stops; the mind is  floating, going down the drain with useless prose,  questionable dialogue,  mundane tasks,  terrible ideas tossed,  trips to town, flat tires, boring company, and missed appointments, -- so back to the grind at home instead.  "Is it done yet"?  Is the question of the year. Dull, tired, uninterested....  have a snooze instead, scraps of paper balled up, tossed at the half-empty coffee mug.  The absent muse smiles  wickedly from a nice holiday in Hawaii  as  fat from  the  floating cream on the stale coffee wicks up into the paper wad, making it interesting, translucent and  yeccht...,oh, man.  I'll get back to that. Maybe.  Write some Flash in the Pan for a bit instead.  Hot stuff. Short. Only 100 words. Maybe 150. Maybe only 50.   I don't mind short stories. Back to the novel... Don't forget writer's block, blank screens, oh-oh,  why is the monitor smoking,  tired eyes, now the coffee tastes like paper,  emptying of the mind into the keyboard, hopefully not  onto,  like that sticky coffee with double cream.  IT tastes terrible. --Oh, I forgot, it's cold. It's got paper floating in it.  Out it goes.  Stare at the reflections in the Zen rock garden.....Snooze.  Ah....new, hot coffee.  the new hot fiction shapes up.  About 310 pages or more.... . Time stops...... The END. The Fires of Waterland is historical fiction.   It is edited,  formatted, printed and available in  ePub, Kindle, and  PDF so you can read it on your computer.  Best of all, worth repeating,   it's printed.  Softcover!   Limited, signed copies of Edition # 1 are available from the author.  Want to get it?   You can do it right now!   You can use PayPal ! UPDATE:   The Fires of Waterland 1st Edition is available only from the author until further notice. Contact the author at  rkmywest@gmail.com  for further details.        Is that Incoming I hear? +  
Posted in Book Reviews, Reflections, Uncategorized, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments